My Dead Friend And Me
by Zdood
Summary: Old (former) friends meet for the first time in quite some time. Things don't quite go as one might expect, and hilarity ensues as some dysfunctional new housemates try to drive each other nuts. Takes place after the true ending of the game, spoilers are unmarked.
1. The Witch's Pilot

My Dead Friend And Me

Summary: Ellen, when bored, would sometimes wonder what Viola would do if she somehow came back as a ghost. She figured her 'friend' would want revenge. Well… she was… sorta rightish?

Disclaimer: This is a nonprofit fan-based... fanfic... and stuff. Yeeeah.

AN: I have other things I probably should be working on but for some reason inspiration apparently hit me to do this instead. Enjoy!

xxWHxx

"Give me my body back."

"No."

"Give me my body back."

"No."

"Give me my body back."

"No."

"Please give me my body back?"

" _No._ "

"…Give my body back you bitch."

" _NO._ And if I said 'no' when you asked politely, why the hell would I say anything else when you say it like _that_?!"

Viola's ghost shrugged. "Meh, I figured it was worth a shot."

Ellen groaned and buried her head in her pillow.

And so another day began in the Fummy household. Such was life ever since about a month ago, when Viola's ghost first dropped by for a visit….

xxWHxx _Past_

It had been about 3 years since that fateful day… or tragic day, or rainy day, depending on who you asked. Ellen had been living the life she'd always wanted since stealing Viola's body, loved and not having a sickness. She'd matured a bit in that time, although that didn't necessarily mean she was particularly regretful of anything she'd done. Although the incident with Viola was largely a footnote in Ellen's long history of x-ing people, at the same time the foolish girl was rather memorable, since, you know, Ellen kind of had her body now. And the big chase through her old witch's house certainly helped with that as well. As such sometimes Ellen did entertain thoughts of what might happen if Viola came back as a ghost, despite that being eaten by a demon kind of made that impossible – hey, boredom did things to people, alright? In any case, she usually came to the conclusion that her old 'friend' would be out for vengeance. After all, who wouldn't be? The thought was often dropped as quickly as it came up though, as Ellen frequently had better things to think about. Like school, or shopping, or whatever.

Speaking of which, Viola's father – Dolin, was his name – had quickly decided to move away from the village where he and Viola had lived as soon as possible, as a result of the witch's house incident. The man didn't want to be anywhere near that forest after the incident, understandably. And so as such the school and shops the currently 16-year old (in body, if not mind) Ellen now frequented were those of a quaint place called Calmtown, a fair distance away from the old village and yet not all that far from it. It was certainly still fairly rural.

And yet as much as things changed, they also stayed somewhat the same. Dolin still went hunting, and Ellen still dressed much like Viola herself likely would if she would have made it to the same age – not because Ellen really needed to to keep Dolin unaware of what happened though, rather she actually sort of liked Viola's sense of fashion, oddly enough. The only real point of difference was that Ellen let her hair out of Viola's braids and grow largely freely, so it was long, and she put a red bow in back. In other words, she looked kind of like her old self if she had blonde hair and green eyes. And, you know, no flesh-eating disease. And a body that wouldn't attract pedophiles.

True to its name (that Ellen could swear was just begging to be made ironic), it was just another calm day in Calmtown when it happened….

"Hmmm… what to buy, what to buy…" Ellen hummed to herself as she strolled around a mall. By herself. Yeah, funnily enough, though Viola did have friends, they were, obviously enough, all living in the old village… and Ellen hadn't really bothered making any efforts to keep in contact with them since moving to Calmtown… or make any new friends either, for that matter. She didn't particularly mind, though. It meant she could act more freely (to an extent, since even if she didn't need to act like Viola around people that didn't even have any idea that the girl had existed at the same time she did kind of need to act within acceptable social guidelines in order to not jeopardize the life she'd worked so hard to get - which meant no killing people for funsies or out of boredom, or sociopathy in general, no matter how much she wanted to sometimes), since Dolin was the only person she was particularly worried about acting like Viola around, and she was quite satisfied with Viola's share of love from the man. Friends were for chumps anyway… like Viola. Tee hee.

As if hearing the narration and getting mad at Ellen, a random can rolled out from somewhere. Not noticing it while thinking things to herself, Ellen –

"Whoa- oof! Damn it…" … Ellen slipped on it and fell on her ass. Rubbing her behind, she got up and glared at the can, almost wishing it would be worth it to bother taking out her self-defense (or so she claimed) knife and stab it. Snapped out of her thoughts by the slip, however, Ellen felt something… odd. She glanced around a bit.

It… felt like she was being watched. A stalker…? Well, amidst the various other people walking about (some of which she had to remind herself to not try to kill, given they were snickering or outright laughing at what had happened with the can), she could see no one obvious… hm.

Well… she was still annoyed with the can – and the laughing people – and wanted to stab something. Maybe this was her chance… it would be nice to be more natural for once. And the best part was she could probably claim self-defense really easily if this wound up going the way she thought it might.

Smirking to herself, Ellen started making her way to somewhere tucked away and isolated from random passerby so as to lure out whoever was watching her. She settled on a back alley near the mall, though she hoped it wouldn't be too obvious as bait.

The former witch didn't have to wait long. Concealing her smirking, she turned around and asked, innocently as possible, "Um, why are you follow-"

And then she saw who – or perhaps 'what' would be better – was following her.

"Boo," Viola's ghost said. Rather smugly, at that.

Ellen stared for a bit, not believing what was in front of her. She rubbed her eyes. Nope, she still didn't believe her eyes. She went to pinch herself –

Plunk. "Gah!" A levitated piece of trash smacked her in the face.

"Ghost powers are fun," said Viola, ever so sweetly.

And that's about when it finally sunk in. "V-Viola?! How?! You- You're supposed to be dead!" Ellen exclaimed, surprised… and perhaps slightly scared. Not that she would ever admit or show it.

Viola glanced at her semi-transparent body – which, Ellen passingly noted, looked much the same as 3 years ago, except older… somehow… and one of her eyes, the left one, was red instead of green - for a minute before giving Ellen an odd look.

"…Okay, bad phrasing," Ellen conceded, before getting annoyed, "I meant, you were supposed to be demon cat food."

"Well," Viola began sweetly, "after you mutilated yourself and by extension me before we swapped, betrayed my trust, led me on a wild chase, and tricked my dad into killing me, yeah, that cute kitty of yours ate me."

Beat. "Okay firstly, witches – which you were at the time – can't die unless they're in despair, so all that stuff was necessary –"

"I seem to remember you enjoying it a lot." Viola interjected, gaze half-lidded.

"…Okay yeah I totally did but don't sidetrack me." Ellen replied before continuing, "Anyway, secondly, you seem to be a lot more sarcastic than I remember –"

"You try spending 3 years in a demon's stomach after being brutally betrayed by your 'friend' and see if you come out the same." Viola said flatly.

"…Okay, fair point," Ellen noted, "but that brings me to my third and final thing: _you were eaten by a demon_. How are you even _here_ right now?!" Emphasizing her point, the ex-witch gestured wildly in Viola's direction.

"Well," the ghost girl began, "I really, really wanted to get out of the demon's belly. So… I kind of spent 3 years clinging to life, trying not to be digested, and more or less clawing my way out." Viola blinked. "I think I might have become part demon myself somewhere along the line because of the sheer effort involved or something, but I'm not entirely sure," the ghost girl casually noted.

Ellen also blinked. "I guess that might explain the red eye, but," she crossed her arms. "You're lying-"

"I'm not you, Ellen."

Ignoring the ghost's jab, Ellen continued, "I mean, getting out of a demon's stomach?! There's just no way!"

"Actually…" Came a third voice from below the two girls. They looked down.

"She's telling the truth, Ellen." Said the demon cat. "Yo."

"Oh great, _another_ person I never wanted to see again." Ellen could feel the beginnings of a migraine forming.

"Oh, I'm hurt." The cat said blandly. It was annoyingly difficult to tell if he was being sincere to any degree whatsoever.

"Whatever," said an irritated Ellen, who pointed at the ghostly Viola, who seemed to be a little apprehensive in the cat's presence. "If you're going to be here, make yourself useful and explain."

The demon looked at her for a moment, as if pondering whether to try to squeeze another contract out of her in exchange for the information. But then, unbeknownst to either of the girls, he decided the events that would surely follow this reunion would be amusing enough to constitute payment on their own, and inwardly relented. "What's there to explain?" asked the cat nonchalantly, moving to begin licking himself. "Viola was quite determined to escape for some reason or another, and indeed, managed to force her way out of me after 3 years of constant trying, at which point we would not too long later find ourselves here. I'm actually sort of relieved; she'd been causing me stomach pains something dreadful with her struggling, she was so determined." The cat looked at the anxious ghost girl. "Relax, I don't plan on trying to eat you again. I mean, you forced yourself out once after all, I don't doubt you could do it again. Not to mention the indigestion was bad enough the first time around…" ' _And though I don't ever plan to tell you, I admit I rather respect the effort you put in…_ ' This seemed to calm Viola somewhat. "Now then," The cat shifted back to a sitting position, "I'm quite curious, what exactly was motivating you all that time? It must've been quite a powerful thing to get you out of there."

"You really have to ask her?" Ellen interrupted, "She obviously wanted to get revenge on me! Am I right?" The ex-witch glanced at her former friend, as did the cat.

"Well, um…" Viola pressed her index fingers together embarrassedly, " _Maaaybe_ a little…" The ghost punctuated the statement by levitating another piece of trash into Ellen's head.

"Gah! Bitch!" The former witch yelped, getting a chuckle out of the demon even as she began attempting to plot a way to get back at the ghost.

"But it wasn't the main reason, I swear!" Viola said firmly before giving the other girl a meaningful look. "And… it was the same reason I chased you through your house back then, actually, Ellen."

Ellen rubbed her head, annoyed. "…Sounds like revenge to me…"

"No Ellen," said Viola, "I was, believe it or not, actually fine with you taking my body, even in spite of you mutilating me." Ellen gave her an odd but clearly disbelieving look, causing Viola to blush slightly. "Hehe, um… like I said, I don't care whether you believe me or not about that, but anyway…" Viola once again became firm, "The reason I chased after you, and the reason I went through so much trouble to get out of the demon… um…" Viola gave an awkward look at the cat. "Do you… have a name…?"

The cat would probably be smiling if he didn't have the face of… well, a cat. "I do, but as it's nothing pronounceable to human ears, you may simply call me Cat," said Cat, before noting amusedly, "Funny, you've asked to know more about me in 3 years than Ellen ever did in centuries."

"Shut up before I kick you." Ellen said flatly.

The demon likely would've grinned even wider if he had a face that could, and both girls could feel it, but he simply glanced back at Viola, which she took as her cue to continue.

"Um, anyway, the reason why I went to all that trouble to try to catch you back then, and escape Cat, was because I was, and still am, worried about my father…" She looked at Ellen "…And what you might do to him."

Ellen blinked, before glowering at Viola. "Dolin? He's fine. Still a nice, loving father giving affection to the girl he thinks is his daughter." And then with a sickly sweet smile, "So yeah, since he's fine, can ya get lost and never come back ever?~"

Beat. Another piece of trash plunked Ellen in the face.

"GAH! Ew gross, that one had old fish bits in it, uck!" She yelled, flailing about.

"…This girl killed people horribly for centuries to feed you and she starts gagging at rotten fish guts of all things?" Viola asked incredulously.

"It would seem so," Cat noted amusedly.

" _I hate you both_." Ellen seethed, wiping the fish gunk off herself, "Anyway, seriously, get lost. I'm not gonna hurt him, not after I spent so damned long trying to get a better life where I didn't have a sickness and trying to find someone to love me. This is everything I ever wanted and I'm not gonna muck it up."

Inwardly noting the irony of some parts of that statement given Viola cared a lot about the girl once upon a time – not to mention that one boy that had been Ellen's first friend and later first victim after becoming a witch, whose existence she became aware of due to Ellen's memories - outwardly the ghost girl said, in quite a deadpan manner, "Ellen, I have your memories. You'd kill dad without a second thought if you so much as _suspected_ he didn't love you anymore or found out about the truth."

Ellen stared at her former friend for a bit. "…I am _not_ that bad." She denied, just the slightest bit indignant.

Viola raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? How many times over would you have killed me if I wasn't already a ghost just during this conversation?"

"27 times, why?" Ellen asked.

Beat. Cat could be heard making a token attempt to stifle a snicker. "Yeah, I'm not leaving you alone with dad as long as I unlive."

"Screw you."

"You know Ellen, you could make another contract with me to deal with this…" Cat suggested slyly.

"Screw you too. I do _not_ want to get involved with demons again. Feed your own damn ass, I can take care of this myself."

"Well…" Cat grinned through his voice, "I'll be around if you change your mind" ' _There's no way I'm going to miss this sitcom waiting to happen…_ '

Ellen gave another look at Viola, who appeared to have been in the process of levitating another bit of trash to toss at the former witch, quickly hiding it behind her back and whistling innocently… and given her semi-transparent body, Ellen could actually _still see_ the trash. ' _…I might have to reconsider that later…'_ She thought, annoyed, before saying, "You're not gonna leave me alone no matter what I do or say short of figuring out a way to kill you again, are you?"

Viola tossed the trash, which Ellen managed to dodge this time. The ex-witch took that as a no.

xxWHxx _Present_

Some other morning of a day that's not the one depicted at the beginning of this chapter…

"Give me my body back."

"No."

"Give me my body back."

"No."

"Give me my body back."

"Why do you keep _doing_ this?! It didn't work the first dozen times, why would it work any _other_ time?!"

"I figure it's kinda like Chinese water torture and you'll crack eventually." Viola's ghost smiled winningly. "Give me my body back."

"Look on the bright side Ellen," said Cat as he sauntered in from the bedroom window and sat himself down on once-Viola's-now-Ellen's bed, "At least you don't need to ever worry about buying an alarm clock. Yo, by the way."

Ellen groaned and buried her head in her pillow. "At least I could _smash_ an alarm clock…hate you… hate you both… so very much…"

"I think you're my bestest friend in the whole wide world too, Ellen~" Viola sang in the most cheerfully sadistic manner possible. Must be whatever demonic energy she inadvertently absorbed on her way out of Cat's stomach. Or maybe it was the delicious revenge.

Either way, Ellen groaned louder.

Cat just chuckled.

Dolin stood downstairs making breakfast for (the person he thought was) his daughter, blissfully unaware of anything going on upstairs, bless him.

…And so another day began in the Fummy household.

xxWHxx

AN: This is what happens when I think to myself 'An ex-witch, her dead former friend, and a demon cat sounds like it'd make a great sitcom'. Also, I tried to keep the prequel novel, _The Diary Of Ellen_ , in mind while doing this.


	2. The Witch's Morning

AN: Back for moooooar. By the way, if you haven't, you should read _The Diary Of Ellen_ sometime. It's pretty neat.

Disclaimer: I don't own _The Witch's House_ and such and such.

xxWHxx

Breakfast was often an interesting affair in the Fummy household. Or at least it was ever since Viola's ghost moved in. And mostly at Ellen's expense.

"…Viola, honey, how did you get the egg yolk in your hair…?"

Ellen's eye twitched. "…I-It was an accident…" She bit out, smiling a rather hilariously forced smile.

Dolin sighed. "Again? You've been having a lot of those lately." And by 'lately' he means roughly one month. About once or twice a week in fact. Sometimes more if Viola was feeling particularly bored/vindictive/mischievous/take-your-pick, not that Dolin knew the reason behind this, since he didn't know the ghost girl was there.

"O-Oh, it's just…" Ellen glanced at Viola, who was floating nearby, unseen by Dolin... and smiling rather smugly. "…you know… puberty, and hormones, and such…"

"Hm. Alright then," Dolin accepted, the poor oblivious sod. "But if you bring any boys home, just remember: I have a shotgun and am obligated as your father to be overprotective. Especially after the incident in the woods back then." You guys know the one.

"Noted, father dearest," Ellen un-smiled… she was pretty sure she was kind of asexual anyway, considering all those centuries she went with nothing. But on the other hand, she did in fact have hormones now because of Viola's body, and those did in fact do their job on occasion. Even if they made her think about bizarre things, like how the most intimate connection she'd had over the centuries was technically pretty much with Viola by default because of the body swap, which made her bile rise just a _little_ higher in her throat each time she thought about it just a _little_ too hard. And then there was the odd time or two it didn't do that and made her feel weird instead, but she'd prefer to shove those moments to the very back of her mind and forget them for the rest of eternity. Damn hormones, making it so much harder than necessary to have a normal, aging body. And damn Viola, for… existing… and not completely dying… and _existing_.

"Well Viola, you should go wash up. I'll make sure the food is still warm when you get back." Dolin said, breaking Ellen out of her mental tangent.

Ellen nodded, heading upstairs to do so. And, naturally, she was followed by Viola.

xxWHxx

"…Have I ever told you you're a pervert?" Ellen grumbled to Viola as she turned on the shower and began to undress.

The ghost girl raised an eyebrow. "Occasionally, yeah… I'm not sure it counts if it's my body I'm looking at, though. And who're you to lecture me about morality anyway?"

"…" Ellen didn't quite have a rebuttal for that and so settled for pointedly ignoring Viola's existence instead. She was… fairly certain they'd been through this sort of conversation before, although given how often she actively tried to forget Viola was around, haunting her, it was hard to be sure through her denial sometimes. If she were to go by that twinkle in Viola's eye though, the former witch would guess yes.

"…Shouldn't you be trying to find a way to get your father to see you or something?" Ellen finally managed to say as she entered the shower.

"Nah, I'm good." Viola replied. It was quickly noticed by Viola upon beginning her haunting of Ellen a month-ish ago that her father couldn't see her. According to Ellen and Cat, it was because he didn't have any sort of real experience with magic (the brief encounter with Viola in Ellen's body in the woods was nowhere near enough exposure); mundane people couldn't see Viola. It saddened her a bit, and yet at the same time she supposed it might've been for the best, for as much as she wanted to tell her father she was there and that Ellen was a fake by, say, writing a message or something, she wasn't sure she wanted to hurt Dolin with the knowledge that he'd killed his daughter in the woods outside the witch's house that day three years ago.

… Also, the proverbial devil on her shoulder (who'd been quite a vocal little scamp ever since escaping from Cat's stomach) was quite happy to take advantage of it, since it meant she could mess with Ellen with relative impunity. Sure, Ellen had threatened her with telling Dolin about a ghost haunting the house, but Viola had been pretty quick to point out how likely that was to backfire on her for various reasons (like Viola just laying low for a while and/or the likelihood of Ellen just looking like she was ill in the head), which got Ellen to x _that_ idea pretty quickly, what with the unnecessary risk to her dream life. Incidentally, the possibility of losing the life she'd dreamed of for so long was also the reason why she didn't simply kill Dolin to spite Viola, though it was hardly due to a lack of wanting to so much as practicality. She would probably resort to it or something roughly as bad if pushed far enough, though, and she made sure Viola was well aware of it.

In short, the two former friends had formed a bit of an uneasy truce of sorts during their first month together. As far as Viola was concerned though, she got the way better end of the deal, since as long as she didn't go overboard with screwing with Ellen she effectively had the former witch wrapped around her ghostly little pinky finger. Seriously, the worst Ellen could really do to Viola unless the ghost pushed it too much was make hammy shows of receiving affection from Dolin, which… didn't really bother Viola that much. In fact, it mostly just made her wonder whether Ellen realized the man was technically showing love to _her_ since that's who he thought Ellen was, or if Ellen knew and just didn't care. The ghost girl made a note to mention it to the former witch sometime. Anyways, unsurprisingly, Viola _loved_ the role reversal, and more than once she'd made that readily apparent to Ellen. It was an easy and fun way to piss her off~

"…I can hear you giggling out there. I don't like hearing you giggling out there." Ellen groused from within the shower. These days, if Viola started giggling like a maniac for no apparent reason, it usually meant bad things for Ellen. Seriously, why did the ghost girl always have to be so annoying? All she did was steal her life and stuff! No big deal, right?

"You don't like hearing me in general, Ellen, hehe." Viola joked. Although she knew it was true, but it's not like it bothered her much. On the contrary, that one time Ellen tried to claw her own eardrums out was actually kind of funny other than the fact it was _her_ body Ellen was doing it to. Thank goodness Ellen was determined (desperate?) enough to keep her dream life that she wasn't willing to actually damage Viola's body in any meaningful way except as a last resort…

"True. So be quiet and contemplate… ghost things or something, I don't care."

"Yeah yeah," Viola said nonchalantly. It's not like she had anything better to do. Other than maybe peeping on or otherwise messing with Ellen while she showered, but she wasn't sure she was bored enough for it.

The ghost girl ended up pondering about how lonely it could get as a spirit at times. Sure, she had Ellen and Cat to talk to but… well… they weren't exactly the best company. The girl who killed her and the demon who ate her. Yeah. Naturally, Ellen was… Ellen, so she wasn't really great company anyway. And sure, Cat at least was kind of nice, but Viola still couldn't help but wish she could have some company that _hadn't_ tried to kill her at least once. Company that _wanted_ her around (Cat might have been nice enough to humor her but she was pretty sure he was ultimately quite apathetic about her presence… much like an actual cat, arguably). Sure, she'd had fun this past month and was glad to still be undead and kicking and able to protect her father, but, well… she was still kind of lonely.

Ellen happened to step out of the shower at that moment. "You look glum," she said, noticing Viola's face had taken on a melancholic look. "You should use that expression more, it's a lot more tolerable than your usual ones."

Viola just stuck her tongue out at the former witch as she dried herself off. "I'll use it every day if you give me my body back."

"You _wish_ I was that gullible." Ellen smirked.

"Well hey, you _did_ fall for that prank last week. Remember, the one with the banana peel?" Viola smirked back.

"…Shut up." Ellen blushed. Whether it was out of embarrassment or anger, it was hard to tell.

xxWHxx

After showering off, Ellen managed to finish her breakfast without further incident. Shortly after, Dolin left the house. Whether it was to shop or hunt or whatever, Ellen wasn't sure (mostly because she had been kind of tuning him out when he said where he was going out of apathy), but regardless, she was now in the living room, and alone in the house with Viola and Cat. Joy.

Well, at least she had her video games to ignore both of them with. And, for that matter, to vent some of her frustrations with. Mostly by playing a fighting game and beating up a character she'd customized to look like Viola (and which she'd rather cleverly named 'Punchingbag-chan') with a character she'd customized to look like herself. Viola could almost roll her eyes watching the little long-haired blonde game model with a bow in its hair beat up the blonde game model with braids and one red eye.

…Okay I just tacked on the last bit to check and see if you remembered the differences in appearance established previously. Be honest, how well did you actually remember those?

After alternating between watching Ellen play the game and staring out the window at birds and stuff, with the occasional glance at the light purple couch they were on to contemplate taking a nap, Viola eventually settled on something to do.

"…Hey, mind if I play the game with you?" The ghost girl asked; as it would turn out, Dolin had bought more than one controller to none-too-subtly hint to Ellen to try to socialize more. Naturally, she ignored the hint.

Ellen paused the game. "…Give me one good reason to indulge you." She deadpanned, turning toward her former friend.

Viola gave it a moment of thought, but it really wasn't hard to figure out a way to appeal to Ellen's tastes. If she weren't a jerk it might actually be kind of cute how easy it was. "You could prove your superiority over the real me instead of a game model whose AI is set to zero?" And just to seal the deal, she added, smirking, "Or are ya scared I'll kick your butt?"

Ellen glared at Viola for a moment. And then she unpaused the game, exited to the menu to select a VS mode, and went to plug in a controller for Viola before tossing the controller at the ghost girl, who managed to catch it with only a bit of fumbling, before stomping back to the couch and falling back onto it. "…I hate it when you do that."

"What do I do that you _don't_ hate?" Viola giggled.

Ellen pretended to think for a bit. "Well, I wouldn't be opposed to you pissing off. I would like that."

"Ooof course." Viola let out, smiling despite herself. It was hard to be mad when it was accepted by both parties that this sort of interaction was normal and routine. Being stuck together for a month and for the foreseeable future does that to people.

"Yo," greeted Cat as he sauntered into the room. "Got room for one more player?"

The two girls stared at the demon. "…How exactly do you expect to play? You have the body of a _cat_." Ellen deadpanned. Viola nodded in agreement, looking a tad apologetic. How _was_ he going to play?

Cat's tail swished. "You let me worry about that."

Ellen stared at him for a few more moments before shrugging. "Fine, whatever. I can't say I would dislike being able to beat the crud outta you, too." She said as she set up a controller for Cat.

Cat smiled. Or did something close to one, since cats don't really... smile, per se.

xxWHxx

Viola stared at the screen, dumbfounded.

Ellen glared at the screen, seething with rage.

Cat licked a paw smugly.

"… _How?!_ " Ellen shouted, gesturing to the screen, which was displaying the win/loss ratio of the game's players. There were three 22s on the screen. Two of them were under 'loss'. The third was under 'win'. That plus the reactions equals do the math, folks.

"It's not my fault you two are terrible at this game." Cat stretched lackadaisically. "Perhaps you'd like to make a contract to fix that?" The demon teased, though he was quite aware that about the only thing the girls readily agreed on was 'no making contracts with Cat or getting mixed up with demons in general'.

"B-But-" Ellen started, disbelieving, "You have a _cat's_ body, and you've never played this game, and, and – a goddamn _cat's body_!"

Viola lifted a finger and opened her mouth, as if to say something. But then she realized she wasn't sure what to say and put her finger back down and closed her mouth. And then she somewhat drunkenly floated upstairs in something of a daze to ponder how exactly it was that her life came to a point where she was a ghost being horribly beaten in video games by a demon cat that ate her once.

"Hmm, what's that expression all the modern humans are using nowadays?" Cat mused. "Ah, yes, 'git gud' I believe it was."

Ellen's eye twitched.

xxWHxx

Cat went flying out the front door with a yowl, landing on his feet as the door slammed shut. "My my, such a sore loser Ellen." He stated nonchalantly. "Although I was more expecting to be skinned alive or something equally colorful that would involve this body dying horribly. I wonder if she's getting soft?" He mused, wandering off to do… uh, demon cat things.

… And so another day passed in the Fummy household.

xxWHxx

AN: It sort of amazes me that I somehow mustered enough motivation to do this whole chapter in practically one go.


	3. The Witch's Magic

AN: Attempting to keep various details at least sort of consistent with the game/novel is harder than it looks… magic welding powers, go. No, I don't have a welding license, why do you ask?

Disclaimer: nonprofit fan work thing

 _Responses_

 _That 'Inactive' Afiction_ : Time period's modern but otherwise ambiguous. Having the Fummy family move away from their old village in the boonies and into the somewhat more urban-but-still-ruralish Calmtown is supposed to be justification for more modern things showing up. Dunno how well I did it, but at least the game and end of the prequel novel are ambiguous enough about when the body swap takes place, and where exactly Viola and her father live, for it to hopefully at least kinda work. All that's really certain (given that the witch's house itself probably isn't a good indicator of time period) is that Ellen's been around for a looong time.

…I realize I didn't do responses last chapter, but then, no questions were asked (I do appreciate the reviews, though; then, now, and always). Incidentally, now's probably a good time to mention I'm willing to answer questions. ;D Granted it might take a while for answers to come…

xxWHxx

 _"It's not so bad to be powerless for a while."_ That was what Ellen had said to herself back then, in the witch's house. Of course, even when she had said it she hadn't been sure how long a 'while' was or would be. Just that eventually she would get at least some of her power back, even in Viola's body. Not all of it, of course, since the vast majority of it came from the contract with Cat, whom she had no need nor particular desire to contract with again after obtaining Viola's body and hadn't even expected to see again, but, well, you don't live in such a magic-intensive environment for so long without some of it rubbing off on you, or even on your very soul.

And, true to those words from so long ago, Ellen had gained some power back. The exact amount, well…

"…Really? Is that all you can do?" Viola said, giving the tiny, flickering, and frankly kind of pitiful flame topping Ellen's finger a funny look. And here she had been actually kind of anxious when Ellen finally remembered she could try to use magic on her (it only took her, what, a month?)…

Ellen, standing in the middle of her room, wasn't sure whether she wanted to glare at her finger or Viola more. "… I never really had a reason to use magic after _stealing your body_ ," She stated (making sure to add smug emphasis to her deed), casually theorizing about this failed attempt at Viola's unlife, "And I was pretty busy living my _newly-acquired life_ , so I never really got around to cultivating my magic or training it or whatever. Add in the lack of spellbooks to learn from…"

"So your magic atrophied, basically?" Viola stated, casually adding to Ellen's theorizing of her attempted weapon, and ignoring the former witch's blatant needling. If only her lying back when they first met was so obvious… although then again she supposed that figuring out Ellen's plans back then probably would've ended in death, too (especially since, going by Ellen's memories, the then-witch had known the then-live Viola was in the forest and could've killed her at any time had she wanted to, only leading her to the house to begin enacting her plan)… except without all the drama of the body swap… the swap that was probably the main reason she got to be a ghost now, because of the events surrounding it…

'… _The fact that I'm contemplating being grateful for Ellen stealing my life disturbs me._ ' Viola thought to herself, grimacing… Ellen had really put her between a rock and a hard place back then, though she didn't know it at the time. That aside, luckily, Ellen had evidently decided to glare at the flame atop her finger over Viola, apparently trying to will it to become bigger, and was too focused to notice Viola's expression. Judging by his chuckling, Cat did, though. Unless he was chuckling at Ellen's frustration. Knowing him, it was actually pretty likely to be both.

"…I think that's about right." Ellen finally answered after the flame continuously refused to bend to her will.

"Indeed it is. Excellent deductions, Detective Ellen." Confirmed Cat, who was on Ellen's bed, in a very annoyingly ambiguously sarcastic way.

Ellen let the flame go out and placed her hands on her hips. "There wouldn't happen to be a way to fix this little issue that doesn't involve making a contract with you, would there?" She asked irritably.

"Unless you're willing to attempt to see if the local library has any spellbooks hidden in it somewhere, or train extensively enough to build your magic back up over time? No." Cat answered, stretching.

Ellen frowned. "…How much time would the training take?"

"Hard to say, really, since that's both related to the intensity of the training as well as how much time you spend doing it. Factoring in your current mundane life making it such that you cannot simply train 24/7, I suspect it would take several months. And that's just getting your reserves back up, I haven't even considered learning new spells or getting reacquainted with any old ones you may still be able to perform. And of course, you will never be as strong as you would be under the power of a contract."

Ellen sighed. "Well, it's better than nothing I guess." And then she added, "Oh and hey, you see that window back there?"

Cat glanced at the open window behind him. "…Yes, what about i-"

The demon didn't quite get to finish as Ellen roughly picked him up by the scruff of his neck and tossed him _out_ that window, yowling. And then there was the noise of rustling leaves and more yowling.

Viola blinked. "…Wasn't there a rosebush below that window?"

Ellen smirked. "Yes. Yes there was."

"Hm." Viola hummed. "That was for the 'Detective Ellen' remark, right?"

"Yep."

"I can only imagine what your plans are for me considering your reactions to minor stuff. And that's before I think about some of the stuff in your memories."

"It's nothing pleasant, I assure you… and you know, it occurs to me," Ellen turned toward the ghost, "Why do you even still have my memories? You're not even in my body anymore."

Viola just shrugged in response. "I'unno. Maybe I just still remember them from when I had your body?"

Grudgingly accepting that, Ellen then gave her former friend a half-lidded gaze, crossing her arms over her chest. "Also, you seem oddly undistressed by the thought that I potentially may have a way to deal with you eventually, or that I tried to deal with you a few minutes ago, or that I have big plans for dealing with you in general."

Truth be told, on the inside, Viola actually was more than a little fearful of that. There was no way in hell she was going to let Ellen know that, though. So, masking her insecurity, she said, cheekily, "What, annoyed that I'm not indulging your sadism?"

"…Killjoy. It's no fun without any screaming, or fear, or terror…" Ellen mumbled as she left the room.

"Didn't you once tell me you 'were not that bad'?" Viola deadpanned, using air quotes, as she followed her.

"…Shut up."

xxWHxx

Travis Dolin Fummy was not a complex man. Arguably the most complex thing about him was how people, once they got to know him, tended to refer to him by his middle name. Something about it being more fitting since his daughter was named Viola and his late wife was named Cello, though since her passing he'd taken to referring to himself by his middle name anyway in her honor, in remembrance of happier times. And between Cello's passing and the encounter with that thing in the woods 3 years ago, he was very grateful to still have Viola. Thank God she was okay (stop snickering). Granted, she tended to act a bit odd sometimes since the incident, but he supposed that made sense since it was likely fairly traumatic for her (seriously, stop snickering).

In any case, as he himself would proclaim, he was also quite protective as a result of these things. And as an extension of this he was, naturally, rather averse to his daughter going into mysterious places like big, sprawling forests alone.

So imagine his reaction when 'Viola' mentioned that she was going to take a walk in the woods (intending to do training related stuff, not that he knew that) on the outskirts of Calmtown for a while.

"…Zzzz…" Dolin snored on the floor. Er, okay, anticlimactic much?

Ellen blinked. "Well, nice to see I can still do simple sleep spells. Saved a lot of trouble there. Anyway…" Turning, she began making her way to the front door.

"Wait," Viola said, "At least put father in his bed first."

"Oh, he'll be fine," Ellen waved her off still heading to the door, "Come on, are ya gonna stalk me to the woods like the annoying fly you always are or not?"

'… _Is that a really roundabout way of saying she wants me to come or is me following her around just routine by now?'_ Viola wondered, suspecting the latter given the former would imply Ellen actually had a shred of friendliness in her (at least, assuming it wasn't just so the former(?) witch could have an unlive target to practice with, which was… likely), while lifting a finger and causing the front door to slam shut. Ghost powers were fun.

Ellen stared at the door for a minute, before turning and giving Viola a dour look.

The ghost girl crossed her arms. "Put father in his bed first." She said firmly.

Ellen frowned. And then she smiled. It was creepy. "Actually," she said, lifting a finger, "How about you open the door, or I put you to sleep?"

Viola raised an eyebrow. "So you weren't trying to get me to come along to use for target practice or something?" She asked, figuring Ellen wouldn't threaten to make it so the ghost couldn't come if she was.

"Nah I was," Ellen said smugly, confirming that Viola gave her too much credit, "But I can just use trees or whatever anyway. And as a bonus, I don't have to deal with your yammering."

"How do you even know your spell will work on me?" Viola questioned, slightly fearful.

"I don't." Ellen said, before quickly firing off the sleep spell, which manifested as a little mote of light that speedily shot out of her finger. " _Let's find out!_ "

"Eep!" Viola reflexively cried, covering herself with her arms just as reflexively as… the little light passed right through her with no effect, ricocheted off a mirror that happened to be behind her, and…

"…Shit." Ellen said simply as the spell went right back to her. And then, with a 'poof' against her as it hit, the witch girl suddenly collapsed to the ground and began snoring peacefully. Also loudly.

Viola, slowly realizing she was not in fact asleep, gradually lowered her arms to be greeted by this sight. Staring at said sight in disbelief for a few moments, she finally sighed in relief. "It's like this girl is only a threat when she has a magic house under her control… I mean, she killed her parents before she even became a witch, and she didn't have any magic during all that stuff after the swap three years ago, yeah, but… well…"

The ghost girl… wasn't quite sure what to think. Eventually, she settled on pinching the bridge of her nose and muttering, "What would've been so hard about moving father to his bed… do you _have_ to be a jerk all the time…"

Letting out another sigh, Viola gave the sleeping Ellen a half-lidded look. "You know, you're kinda cute when you're asleep, as weird as that might be to say about my own body. Too bad it's just a front. Hmph."

Cat walked in from… somewhere, right about then. "Yo." He greeted, taking a look around the foyer. "My my, what'd I miss?"

"Well, apparently Ellen can do simple sleep spells."

"I see. I assume she didn't use it on herself purposely so as to take a nap?"

"Nah. Tried to hit me." Viola pointed behind herself. "Mirror."

Cat glanced at said object, chuckling. "Perhaps three years of magical inactivity and being contractless have taken their toll."

"…Maybe?" Viola might've had Ellen's memories but she couldn't honestly say she had ever really sorted through the ones related to her magic and how it worked. When she had went on the periodic walk down Ellen's memory lane during the years she spent as demon cat food (what can she say, sitting around trying not to be digested could only stave off boredom for so long) she was usually more concerned with the endless examples of sociopathy and sadism Ellen had displayed over countless years that tended to make her constantly worry about what might happen to Dolin. They were certainly a great help in keeping her determined to escape. In short, she was not a magic buff, and therefore could neither confirm nor deny Cat's statement. Though it was probably rhetorical anyway…

"…Well, I guess I should take them to their beds…?" Viola half-asked, still a little unsure of what to do in the rather silly outcome of this situation.

"Whatever ya wanna do." Cat said, sauntering off.

xxWHxx

"Mmmph, mm…" Ellen grumbled as she slowly came back to the land of wakefulness. "No, pink puffball, go away, I'm not a witch or a dark whatever, you're annoying… huh…?" Fully waking, after a few moments the body snatcher shot up in her bed. "Who-What-… oh, right." Ellen facepalmed. "The sleep spell backfired. How humiliating…"

"If it makes you feel any better," Viola chimed in from the side, apparently reading a manga book ('Soul Eater', it looked like. Somehow it seems ironic that Ellen apparently owns that…) off to the side. Conveniently, ghosts don't need to sleep unless they want to. "This isn't really any worse than some of the stuff I've done to you since I started haunting you."

"Maybe, but there's a special flavor of humiliation involved when you do something to _yourself_ …" Ellen blushed furiously, cupping her snarling face in her hands, with equal parts anger and embarrassment. Even the banana peel incident could be easily blamed on Viola, but this? This was her own fault. Not that the witch wouldn't try to shift the blame anyway. Ahem, damn Viola and her ghost body. And damn her for trying to make the great Ellen properly put her father to bed. And damn mirrors too, for that matter. How dare they sit there, and be all shiny, and reflective, and crap. Also damn Viola, because she clearly deserves an extra serving of damn just because.

Pausing her mental tirade and glancing around, Ellen finally noticed she was in her room, and when she realized how she probably looked to the ghost girl in her presence during this pause in her sulking, vehemently tried to push her embarrassment as far into the back of her mind as possible. Fuck looking all vulnerable in front of Viola, she wouldn't give her the satisfaction!

That mostly taken care of and trying to act like nothing happened, Ellen finally asked, gesturing around her room. "What time is it and how the hell did I get here, anyway?"

If Viola had anything she wanted to say about what Ellen had looked like a minute ago, she didn't say it. Instead, to answer her housemate's question, "It's the middle of the night. I think it was… nine last time I looked at a clock? Probably a good bit later now. You were out for a couple of hours. Not bad for a 'simple' sleep spell."

"And how I got here?" Ellen pushed. Offhandedly, she noticed she'd been tucked in as well. What the hell…?

Viola raised an eyebrow. "How do you think? I brought you up here, and put you to bed."

Ellen blinked, a little disbelieving. "…Seriously?"

Viola sighed, rolling her eyes. "I know you wouldn't do the same for me, unless the bed was a flower bed and you could use a mountain of dirt as a blanket," Viola laughed a little bitterly at that, "but even though I don't exactly like you, I do still have _some_ capacity to be nice to you, you know."

Ellen just grunted in response and pointedly looked the other way, which was… about what Viola expected. Maybe a little better since there was a lack of insults.

"…thankyou." A quick and rather grudging mumble came from the witch girl, sounding more like a quiet but garbled growl than anything else.

Naturally, Viola thus didn't exactly hear, and asked in confusion, "Eh? What'd you say?"

"Nothing. You're annoying and your kindness is stupid." Ellen bluntly stated.

"Yeah, I know," Viola deadpanned, "I've known _that_ ever since the body swap. I don't know why I even bothered…" The ghost girl went back to reading the manga she was holding.

That over with, and figuring it was probably too late to bother doing anything else anyway (training could wait…), Ellen hopped out of bed to go brush her teeth and whatnot before going back to sleep, but stopped when something irksome suddenly occurred to her.

"…Come to think… please don't tell me you bridal carried me up here." The witchy girl stated, feeling another bout of angry embarrassment (embarrassed angriness?) coming on…

"Okay, I won't." Viola deadpanned again, not even so much as glancing away from her book, and the implication preeetty clear.

Turning a rather vivid red thankfully unseen by the ever-damnable Viola, Ellen could be heard muttering a string of swears under her breath as she rushed to the bathroom and rather loudly shut the door, as if that would actually do anything if Viola were to want to come in for some reason. Damned ghost, carrying her in such a damnable way, dammit. Also, cockdick and piss.

Viola spared a rather uncaring glance at the bathroom door. "I don't see what the big deal is…" She muttered before going back to reading. It was probably just hormones or something.

xxWHxx

Elsewhere in the house, Dolin woke up from his own impromptu spell-induced nap. After a look around his bedroom, he concluded that'd had some kind of weird dream and attempted to get back to sleep. It had to have been a dream, after all, there was no way Viola would ever try to go to a secluded, isolated, expansive forest in real life after what happened three years ago, right? That would be preposterous, surely, so it clearly had to be some kind of nightmare manifesting his fears! Granted, sure maybe he was being overprotective about that but he was justified in it dammit! Witches aren't the only thing that could be roaming around big forests! There could be demons, or ghosts, or amoral hunters that wanted to see what it would be like to have a human trophy! Or, worst of all, _teenage boys looking to have unprotected sex_! The very _thought_ of that last one made Dolin shiver! …Er, and so did… the others, too… totally… yeah.

Meanwhile, as Dolin tried to get back to sleep through his errant thoughts of potential dangers to his (perceived) daughter, an observant eye could see Cat grooming himself in a corner of the room.

…What relevance does this have to anything? None whatsoever. He's just there. Licking his balls right now. Ew.

xxWHxx

AN: I've written more Witch's House fanfic in the past few weeks than I've written for anything else in months. I don't know how to feel about that. I should probably just go back to finding ways to make Ellen a butt monkey, it's fun. Mmm, karmatic donut…

Incidentally, Ellen's favorite Kirby character is Magolor, who happens to be Viola's least favorite. At least until _Dream Collection_. After that Ellen thought he was a wuss and Viola appreciated him more.


End file.
